Office of the Provost

Faculty Orientation

Dear New Faculty Member,

Welcome to Wake Forest! You are joining a thriving community of outstanding teacher-scholars during an especially exciting time at our university. Even as storms buffet higher education nationally, we remain fully committed to building an exceptional collegiate university with a superb faculty and talented students who are committed to pursuing knowledge and making a meaningful impact. We welcome this August one of our academically strongest as well as most diverse first-year classes in WFU history. We are confident that your arrival will help us make this great institution even better.

I write to ask you to put our New Faculty Orientation program on your August calendar. Orientation is one of the many ways that Wake Forest invests in the professional development and success of our faculty members throughout their careers. The orientation series will introduce you (in lively fashion; we keep speechifying to a minimum!) to various means of support for your vital work of research and teaching. You will also learn more about our close WFU community, meet both new and veteran faculty and administrative colleagues, and even begin to develop new friendships.

New Faculty Orientation runs across three days, beginning on Wednesday, August 14, at 8 AM with a light breakfast and welcome followed by a campus tour—be sure to wear comfortable shoes. A detailed schedule for the rest of the day, and those following, is attached. Wednesday’s activities will conclude with a Family Cookout on Hearn Plaza, beginning at 6 PM; dinner and drinks will be provided, and various WFU’ers will attend; we hope to greet any family members joining you in Winston-Salem.

On Thursday, we’ll have breakfast at 8:30 AM followed by a light-hearted discussion centered on “10 Tips for Success as a WFU Faculty Member.” The rest of the day is yours to do as you wish. On Friday—our final day of orientation—you will attend a session held by the dean of your school.

A pair of additional scheduling requests. First, please plan to attend a required (and highly useful, given Wake’s signature student laptop program) ThinkPad Orientation session; details on the attached agenda. We also ask you to attend a “Fostering Faculty Inclusive Excellence” workshop, a road-tested means of enhancing inclusion and engagement across our entire constituency. Your session is scheduled for Wednesday, August 21, from 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM, in the Lower Auditorium of Wingate Hall. For more information on this program, please visit http://diversity.provost.wfu.edu/.

We recommend that you arrive in Winston-Salem by early August so that you can participate fully in our orientation program. Our vibrant academic community is distinguished by our collective strength and depth of care for one another. We’re eager to ensure that, as a new community member, you have the requisite information and familiarity with campus to make a comfortable transition into your new position. We are eager to support your success and as a first step, I look forward to seeing you at New Faculty Orientation. If you have any questions, please contact me at provost@nullwfu.edu.